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National Register

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Program

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.

Completed and first occupied in 1931, the Des Moines Building is significant, locally and under National Register Criterion C, because of its architectural style. The building's massing, upper floor setbacks, and main lobby call attention to the influence of Art Deco styling on its design. The Des Moines Building is significant because of its architectural form as a skyscraper. It added a key component to the Sixth A venue Canyon, one of the densest and most fully developed urban spaces in Iowa. The Des Moines Building also calls attention to Proudfoot, Rawson, Souers & Thomas, a venerable Des Moines-based architectural firm, which designed the building and demonstrated in it the ability to adapt to new architectural ideas .

Properties are listed in the National Register of Historic Places under four criteria: A, B, C, and D. For information on what these criterion are and how they are applied, please see our Bulletin on How to Apply the National Register Criteria